Lion Air: A primer on the Indonesian low-cost airline involved in Monday's crash

A Lion Air passenger jet with 189 people on board crashed into the sea just after takeoff from Jakarta, Indonesia on Monday. The search is concentrating in oil-slickened waters where debris has been found. (Oct. 29)
AP

A Lion Air jet is seen on the tarmac at Juanda International Airport in Surabaya, Indonesia in 2012. One of the low-cost airline's planes crashed off the coast of Jakarta Monday.(Photo: Trisnadi, AP)

BANGKOK – Lion Air, the airline whose plane crashed early Monday while traveling from Jakarta to an island off Indonesia’s Sumatra with 189 people on board, is a fast-growing low-cost airline with a mixed safety record.

The privately owned carrier was founded in 1999 to provide access to air travel to everyone. It offers dozens of flights a day both internationally and within the archipelago’s more than 17,000 islands.

The biggest airline in the country in terms of passenger numbers and one of the largest low-cost carriers after Malaysia-based AirAsia, it mostly flies Boeing 737s.

Before Monday’s crash, the airline had not reported a fatal accident since 2004, when 25 people died when the DC-9 they were on crashed amid heavy rain at Solo City in central Java.

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A wallet belonging to a victim of the Lion Air passenger jet that crashed is seen in the waters of Ujung Karawang, West Java, Indonesia, Monday, Oct. 29, 2018. A Lion Air flight crashed into the sea just minutes after taking off from Indonesia's capital on Monday in a blow to the country's aviation safety record after the lifting of bans on its airlines by the European Union and U.S. Achmad Ibrahim, AP

Rescuers conduct search operation in the waters of Ujung Karawang, West Java, Indonesia after a Lion Air plane crashed into the sea Monday, Oct. 29, 2018. A Lion Air flight crashed into the sea just minutes after taking off from Indonesia's capital on Monday in a blow to the country's aviation safety record after the lifting of bans on its airlines by the European Union and U.S. Achmad Ibrahim, AP

A member of Indonesian Search and Rescue Agency inspects debris believed to be from Lion Air passenger jet that crashed off Java Island at Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta, Indonesia Monday, Oct. 29, 2018. A Lion Air flight crashed into the sea just minutes after taking off from Indonesia's capital on Monday in a blow to the country's aviation safety record after the lifting of bans on its airlines by the European Union and U.S. Tatan Syuflana, AP

This handout photo taken and released on Oct. 29, 2018 by Indonesia's National Search And Rescue Agency of Indonesia shows rescue personnel searching the waters for wreckage from Lion Air flight JT 610 which crashed into the sea off the northern coast of Indonesia's Java island. National Search And Rescue Agency of Indonesia via AFP/Getty Images

Putri, center, is consoled for the loss of her husband and child who were passengers on board Lion Air flight JT 610, in Pangkal Pinang airport in Bangka Belitung province on October 29, 2018. RONI BAYU, AFP/Getty Images

Members of a rescue team transfer body bags into a vehicle at the port in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, on Oct. 29, 2018, after being recovered from the sea where Lion Air flight JT 610 crashed off the north coast earlier in the day. RESMI MALAU, AFP/Getty Images

Sony Setiawan, center, speaks to journalists at Pangkal Pinang airport in Bangka Belitung province on Oct. 29, 2018, following his arrival on another airline after missing his pre-planned flight on Lion Air flight JT 610 which crashed off the coast north of Jakarta. Setiawan was due to board the flight, but was held up on his commute to Soekarno-Hatta airport by Jakarta's notorious traffic congestion. RONI BAYU, AFP/Getty Images

A member of Indonesian Search and Rescue Agency inspects debris recovered from where a Lion Air passenger jet is suspected to have crashed, at Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta, Indonesia Monday, Oct. 29, 2018. A Lion Air flight crashed into the sea just minutes after taking off from Indonesia's capital on Monday in a blow to the country's aviation safety record after the lifting of bans on its airlines by the European Union and U.S. Tatan Syuflana, AP

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Monday’s disaster was a blow to the country’s aviation safety record after the lifting of bans on its airlines by the European Union and the United States.

The European Union barred Indonesian airlines from flying to Europe in 2007 due to safety concerns. Lion Air was allowed to resume flights to Europe as of June 2016, and the ban on all other Indonesian airlines was lifted earlier this year.

The U.S. lifted a decade-long ban in 2016.

Last month, two Lion Air-owned aircraft had a wingtip strike while they were on the tarmac at Jakarta’s airport. An investigation attributed the incident to a rushed departure. In April, a Lion Air Boeing 737-800 overran the runway at Gorontalo Airport on the island of Sulawesi. Afterward, investigators and the airline issued instructions on improving safety awareness and procedures.

No one was reported injured in either of those incidents, according to reports on the website Aviation Safety Network.

Lion Air announced early this year that it was among three major Indonesian airlines, including Garuda Indonesia and Batik Air, that were upgraded to the highest level of safety rating after Indonesia passed a key international audit under the International Civil Aviation Organization’s Universal Safety Oversight Audit Program.

Lion Air has been expanding bullishly in Southeast Asia, a fast-growing region of more than 600 million people. Earlier this year it confirmed a deal to buy 50 new Boeing narrow-body aircraft worth an estimated $6.24 billion.

In a record transaction, Lion Air signed a deal to buy 230 Boeing jets for $21.7 billion during a visit by then-President Barack Obama in November 2011.

The carrier was founded by Indonesian-Chinese brothers Rusdi and Kusnan Kirana, who pooled money to set up a travel agency and then began their airline with one leased aircraft. Rusdi Kirana, chief executive officer of the airline, was named Indonesia’s ambassador to Malaysia in 2017 after serving as an adviser to Indonesian President Joko Widodo.

The carrier operates with regional partners Thai Lion Air, Malindo Air, Wings Air, Batik Air and Lion Bizjet. It also has a freight business, Lion Parcel.

Boeing's first 737 MAX 9 approaches for landing at Boeing Field in Seattle after completing the first-ever flight for the variant of the plane on April 13, 2017. The MAX 9 model is almost 9 feet longer than the MAX 8s 129 feet 8 inches, carryingh 178 passengers in two classes compared with the MAX 8s 162 in a similar configuration. / AFP PHOTO / Jason RedmondJASON REDMOND/AFP/Getty Images ORIG FILE ID: AFP_NJ5EM Jason Redmond, AFP/Getty Images

A fake coyote used to scare off birds is pictured in the foreground as a Boeing 737 MAX 9 taxis ahead at the first-flight event for the company's new airplane at Renton Field in Renton, Wash., on April 13, 2017. JASON REDMOND, AFP/Getty Images

A Boeing 737 MAX 9 is lifts off during the first-flight event for the company's new airplane at Renton Field in Renton, Washington on April 13, 2017.
A Boeing 737 MAX 9 lifts off during the first-flight event for the company's new airplane in Renton, Wash., on April 13, 2017. Jason Redmond, AFP/Getty Images